Fruit e-commerce boom fuels rural tourism

Original headline: Unmarketable limes and mandarin oranges, and the e-commerce rescue effort that followed, prompt reflection --

Can leisure agriculture "rescue" fruit growers?

Unmarketable mandarin oranges left to rot in the orchard. Photo by Yang Lixuan

More than 4 months after ripening, no one came to pick them, and the fruit gradually rotted. Photo by Yang Lixuan

40,000 jin of local mandarin oranges hung on the branches; 4 months past the picking season there was still no buyer, and the wages for hiring people to pick and deliver them to nearby candied fruit factories could not even be recouped, so they could only be left to slowly rot on the branches and in the orchard.

Yet not far from this mandarin orange orchard in Longdu Town, Chenghai District, Shantou, a lime orchard had just recently completed an "e-commerce great rescue" operation -- several tons of limes, also unsold after hanging on the trees, were helped by a well-known local e-commerce operator's "loss-making promotion" to avoid the plight of rotting on the treetops.

The overripe mandarin oranges could no longer replicate the "e-commerce promotion" model, but the warm-hearted e-commerce people and the owner of the lime orchard still became volunteers, calling on citizens to come and buy -- as a result, in just 3 days, nearly 10,000 jin of mandarin oranges in the orchard were picked from the treetops by enthusiastic companies and citizens. Interestingly, data showed that nearly half of the sales came from citizens who drove from surrounding towns.

As a deputy to the National People's Congress this year, Chen Liangxian, Secretary of the Shantou Municipal Party Committee, put forward a proposal during the "Two Sessions" to incorporate leisure agriculture into tourism development planning. This Chenghai mandarin orange rescue operation also triggered reflection among Chenghai fruit growers and e-commerce people on leisure agriculture.

A mandarin orange orchard troubled by unsold fruit

Jin Huaimao is a fruit grower in Houxi Village, Longdu Town, Chenghai District, Shantou, where he runs an orchard of about 15 mu, most of whose trees are local Chaozhou mandarin oranges. The picking season for mandarin oranges is generally after November each year, and the peak sales season is before the Spring Festival -- Chaoshan people like to buy Chaozhou mandarin oranges during the Spring Festival, as the meaning is great fortune and prosperity.

But once the Spring Festival passes, the fruit slowly becomes overripe, and combined with gradually increasing rain and other reasons, the mandarin oranges begin to drop.

They were unsold, but Jin Huaimao was helpless. He had also thought of selling the fruit cheaply to nearby preserved fruit and candied fruit factories, but at a price of a few mao per jin, it was not even enough to cover the wages and transport costs of the workers collecting the mandarin oranges. "Now a woman helping in the orchard costs 120 yuan a day in wages, and you still have to hire a vehicle and people to move them, so after calculating it you might even lose money. The mandarin oranges that fall to the ground will rot, and then insects will breed; at first we would still pick them out and transport them farther away to throw away, but later there were too many (fallen mandarin oranges), too many to throw away in time, so we simply stopped bothering," a worker in this mandarin orange orchard said helplessly.

Jin Huaimao's 15-mu orchard was expected to yield about 5,000 jin per mu. By April, a strange phenomenon this year was that before the fruit on the mandarin orange trees had all been picked, some trees had already bloomed again. After experiencing a cold wave and rainy weather, nearly half of the mandarin oranges in Jin Huaimao's orchard had dropped, and about 40,000 jin of mandarin oranges remained unsold.

For Jin Huaimao, this predicament of unsold fruit was simply "unsolvable." He did not know where to expand sales channels, worried all day, and had already silently cut down quite a few trees that were some years old.

On April 2, Du Yongzhu, who operates the "JD.com Shantou Agricultural Specialties Store," learned the news that his hometown acquaintance Jin Huaimao's mandarin oranges were unsold and came to the orchard for an on-site inspection. "I came here and saw on site that this batch of Chaozhou mandarin oranges is overripe and does not look good, but the quality and taste are still quite acceptable." Because this batch of overripe mandarin oranges could not be sold nationwide by express delivery, Du Yongzhu still decided to try to help Jin Huaimao through his own influence and that of the platform he had.

Private cars jammed the country lanes

Du Yongzhu posted on his own WeChat Moments the news and pictures of the unsold mandarin oranges after the on-site inspection.

After the news was posted, friends began to place orders for Chaozhou mandarin oranges through Du Yongzhu. Quite a few enthusiastic citizens also began to copy and forward this message and continued to spread it -- and this message quickly became content reported by Shantou media, further increasing the effectiveness of its spread.

While Jin Huaimao was worrying in the orchard, he did not know that his orchard had already become what everyone called the "Love Mandarin Orange Orchard." The owner of a nearby orchard, Jin Zhuoman, had met Du Yongzhu because his fruit trees had previously been unsold, so he also became a volunteer for this "Love Mandarin Orange Orchard" -- when the reporter went to interview on the 5th, Jin Zhuoman was still delivering mandarin oranges to orderers in the urban area of Shantou. He also voluntarily gave directions and led the way for everyone.

From Shantou's main urban area to Jin Huaimao's orchard, after getting off the expressway, at an easy-to-find school gate and at the entrance to the road into the orchard, thoughtful "Love Mandarin Orange Orchard" guide signs had been placed to make it convenient for citizens to go and pick.

"On the 4th, which was still a holiday, many people drove to the orchard and picked on site." Jin Zhuoman said that many people came as a whole family, coming here to look at the scenery and enjoy an outing while picking some Chaozhou mandarin oranges to take back to eat. That day, the small road into the orchard was packed with cars, and this orchard had never been so lively.

After taking stock, as of the 4th, that is, the second day after the news was released, the total amount purchased through friends' orders and picked after arriving at the orchard exceeded 6,000 jin -- and of that, more than 3,000 jin of mandarin oranges were picked after arriving at the orchard. Regarding the price of 1 yuan per jin set by Jin Huaimao, a couple picking in the orchard said they did not mind the price very much; they had come here from Shantou's urban area after seeing the news and also planned to stroll around the countryside of Longdu Town along the way. "This season is very suitable for playing in Longdu, and the nearby Qianmei Village is also very beautiful," the man said.

The pressure on fruit grower Jin Huaimao also eased a great deal along with the bags and bags of mandarin oranges being carried away.

Earlier there was also the problem of unsold limes

Right next to Jin Huaimao's orchard is a comprehensive farm operated by Jin Zhuoman and his relatives, with various fruit trees such as limes, dragon fruit and wax apples. And just a few months earlier, the limes that Jin Zhuoman had carefully grown for more than two years had a bumper harvest, but he too encountered a sales problem.

Coincidentally, that time it was also Du Yongzhu who, through a promotional campaign launched on an e-commerce platform, sold several tons of limes for him in one go.

"I know that by doing this e-commerce promotion campaign, he himself did not make money, and may even have lost money," Jin Zhuoman said. 6 limes, weighing nearly 2 jin, plus a packing box, with nationwide free shipping at only 9.9 yuan, helped Jin Zhuoman sell fresh limes all over China.

After that emergency lime promotion, and then encountering the neighboring mandarin orange orchard's unsold problem being addressed through this model of public-interest spread and ordering plus families driving to the production area to pick their own fruit, Jin Zhuoman was also inspired. "Modern agriculture needs modern farmers; you cannot just bury your head in busy work in the orchard. You should take the initiative to reach out and leverage the internet, and at the same time you can also unite fruit growers for overall planning, turning this large area of orchards and farms into a place for city people to relax and visit," Jin Zhuoman said on his comprehensive farm.